35 Years Later: Gremlins 2: The New Batch Remains One of the Most Audacious Sequels Ever

In the world filled with paint-by-numbers sequels, it doesn’t feel like a huge stretch to declare Joe Dante's Gremlins 2: The New Batch as one of the zaniest and most audacious follow-up efforts that pretty much broke every rule it could along the way. A brilliantly hilarious satire of what made the original Gremlins an immediate classic, The New Batch perfectly demonstrates how Dante was one of the best anarchist filmmakers of his generation.

There’s no doubt that The New Batch’s subversive humor was way ahead of its time, taking shots at the corporatization of America, the unrelenting studio machine that often put profits ahead of creativity, the rising interest in utilizing modern medicine for nefarious reasons, as well as society’s obsession with things like cable television and frozen yogurt to boot.

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In lesser hands, Gremlins 2: The New Batch probably would have been a catastrophe. But with Dante at the helm, the film was a meta masterstroke of creativity that defied conventions and gave us one of the greatest sequels ever to be committed to celluloid.

At the start of Gremlins 2, the always adorable Mogwai Gizmo (voiced by Howie Mandel) is still living in the care of Chinatown store owner Mr. Wing (Keye Luke) and is still safely hidden away from the world. But after tragedy soon leaves Gizmo homeless, he comes into the possession of a mad scientist named Dr. Catheter (Christopher Lee) who works at a state-of-the-art Manhattan skyscraper owned by quirky billionaire Daniel Clamp (John Glover).

Coincidentally, Gizmo's old friends from Kingston Falls, Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), also happen to work in Mr. Clamp's building. When Billy gets wind that his furry pal is locked away in the genetics research lab on the 51st floor, he sets out to rescue Gizmo before anything bad happens. But when Billy’s imposing boss Marla (Haviland Morris) sweeps him away for an intimate business dinner, little Gizmo is left behind at the office and inadvertently spawns a new batch of Gremlins thanks to a janitor played by the legendary John Astin.

After the new Mogwai grab some grub after midnight and go through their “pupal stage” (as we learn in the first Gremlins), these little green monster begin to run amok and take over Clamp Tower. Not only do the titular creatures wreak havoc on the building’s infrastructure, they unleash pure chaos in the various Clamp studios and begin using Dr. Catheter's science lab inside the building to conduct experiments of their own, all while still finding the time to giving poor Gizmo the business and terrorize anyone trapped inside of the building.

This new gang of verdant beasts are being led by a highly intelligent Gremlin named "Brain" (voiced by the incomparable Tony Randall), the wicked little creatures undergo all sorts of mutations which results in a wide array of crazy Gremlin hybrids that have the potential to completely ravage the streets of New York City. As Brain prepares to inject his fellow Gremlins with a sunblock-like serum (negating that whole “sunlight will kill them” thing), it's up to Billy, Kate and Gizmo to save the Big Apple from total calamity before it's too late.

As an enthusiastic fan of Dante’s entire filmography as a whole, I am always endlessly impressed by the reckless enthusiasm for classic horror and Looney Tunes-styled shenanigans that is on display during Gremlins 2: The New Batch. In the sequel, there's way more chaos than we saw in the original film, there are much bigger stakes at play, and the way Dante infuses his story with a huge amount of self-referential humor is so endlessly entertaining, resulting in a sequel that is a far campier affair than its predecessor. That’s not to say anything negative about the original Gremlins — it is still one of my very favorite movies from the 1980s that I rewatch at least half a dozen times every year.

But The New Batch is just a completely different animal than its predecessor — there’s no denying that it’s total madcap mayhem where the gags fly at you a mile a minute, and I just adore how Dante was able to lampoon the studio system's fascination with sequels and merchandising and take a few prescient jabs at society’s over-reliance on technology, but he also manages to work in a slew of homages to classic horror cinema, contemporary movie moments as well as a bunch of Eighties pop culture references that are still an absolute delight.

Seriously, there are movies that are ambitious and then there’s Gremlins 2: The New Batch.

Also, I know the Hulk Hogan interruption in The New Batch hasn’t aged particularly well, in light of a lot of things over the last 10 years or so, but let me tell you this — as a kid who grew up obsessed with professional wrestling and had a Hogan poster on my wall back then, when the Hulkster showed up to berate the “Gremsters” so that they would restart the movie, I still cannot even begin to articulate the sheer joy that I felt in my heart at that moment.

And that’s what The New Batch is — pure cinematic joy. For a sequel that is a send-up of the concept of sequels, Gremlins 2 is a movie that somehow defies any kind of inherent cynicism to create a viewing experience that is still an utter riot from start to finish, even after 35 years. Beyond that, it helped cement Joe Dante as a total filmmaking badass in my book (and that’s an opinion that has not wavered at all over time).

To wrap this meager celebration up, I just wanted to share some random thoughts on certain aspects of Gremlins 2: The New Batch that I absolutely love:

Daffy Gremlin — God help me but that goofy little bastard always makes me laugh maniacally whenever he’s onscreen. Seriously. I rewatched the film as I was writing this and I was doubled-over in laughter several times because of Daffy and his wacky antics and infectious giggles. Also, I love that he’s the Gremlin involved in the Marathon Man gag with Billy, too. An unsettling yet wonderfully absurd moment that still makes me smile.

All the Gremlins — Yeah, if I’m going to give Daffy a shout-out, I have to show some love to all the other creatures here too, because there are so many amazing Gremlins in this that I just cannot help myself. Brain is amazing, Greta is an ICON, Lenny and George are so awesome (I love how their design comes from 1930s cinema but also is tied to Of Mice and Men), the Veggie Gremlin is so innovative, the Spider Gremlin scared the crap out of me back in 1990 and now just really impresses the hell out of me because it feels like a miracle of special effects, the Bat Gremlin is so freaking cool, the Phantom Gremlin still makes me geek out so hard, and I cackle when we see the Witch Gremlin dissolving during the film’s conclusion, too.

The Cast — Of course, it was great to have several cast members Gremlins 2: The New Batch but what I love about the rest of the cast is that beyond seeing all of the familiar faces from previous movies by Joe Dante (Paul Bartel, Robert Picardo, Belinda Balaski, Rick Ducommun as well as the Gremlins alumni), it feels like every other role is played by a performer that elicits the “Oh, wow - it’s so-and-so!” response, like the aforementioned Christopher Lee, John Astin, and Haviland Morris, as well as Robert Prosky, Gedde Watanabe, and Kathleen Freeman amongst others. Also, I love that I inadvertently had a Dean Norris double feature the first time I saw Gremlins 2: The New Batch as it was part of a drive-in double feature with Total Recall back in the day.

The Special Effects — What special effects legend Chris Walas and his team were able to create and achieve on the first Gremlins blew my mind and made me immediately obsessed with the world special effects, so I don’t want to take anything away from the work on that film, because it’s still wondrous to watch. That being said, it’s impossible to deny the artistry that is on display in Gremlins 2: The New Batch courtesy of Rick Baker and the amazing crew at Cinovation Studios.

I’ve had the distinct pleasure of interviewing a number of artists who worked on The New Batch for my book series (you can find Monsters, Makeup & Effects: Volume 1 HERE and Volume 2 HERE) and not only did they spend an unprecedented amount of time working on the sequel (somewhere between 16 and 18 months is what I have been told), but every single creature is so meticulously designed — and there are A LOT of them. Just look at the amount of Gremlins featured in the finale alone. Like, holy crap. There’s a reason that about 60 percent of the special effects artists working at the time were employed by Cinovation — Gremlins 2 is a hugely ambitious showcase for the miracles achieved by practical special effects.

Daniel Clamp — I’m not going to get political here but what I will say is that the character of Daniel Clamp hits a lot very differently now that it did back in 1990, and I think most people understand why. Also, gotta say that Joe Dante must have some sort of crystal ball because while rewatching The New Batch tonight, hearing Clamp discuss throwing a parade to honor himself was definitely an “Oh, REALLY?” moment.

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